Beyond Surveillance: How Do Markets and Algorithms 'Think'?

Abstract

This paper draws on Foucault's work to inspire and inform a conceptual investigation into the relationship between economic thinking, in particular concerning markets, and contemporary computing. This investigation takes the form of three intellectual probes. The first of these probes applies to the computer's capacity to lower transaction costs, the second proceeds through the framing of markets (and algorithms) as places of truth, and the third draws on Deleuze's reading of Foucault to inquire into the notion of order and ordering. Together, the three lines of inquiry attempt to outline an encounter between Foucault's thinking and computing that moves beyond the question of surveillance in favor of an emphasis on questions of epistemology.